j76 I just found this gem in my old files from around 2006 [I imagine that I just wrote these pieces and then forgot about them. That is why I never shared them with anyone until now.
And another: j78 midi file
and another j80
j83 j86 j89 l43 k16 r53 [This is from the r series.] n35 n47
The Rambam Laws of What Makes a Bed or Chair unclean 3:7 a woman that sees a stain, is unclean back to the time of the last check. In Laws of Forbidden Sexual Relations 9:3 when she has a set time to see, then the stain goes back 24 hours. I realized just now that that law in Laws of What Makes a Bed or Chair Unclean 3:7 has to refer to when she does not have a set time to see. [I see that I am understanding this Rambam a bit differently than Rav Shach.]
I had thought before that laws of forbidden sexual relations 9:3 refers to counting her cycle, but now I see that that is not so. The Rambam writes openly there that in terms of counting, she counts only when she sees blood, not when she sees a stain. And we already know from the Gemara in Nida page 3 side b and page 6 that a stain only refers to touching truma [the tithe of grain that is given to the priest] or sacrifices.
This really ought to be obvious, but what got me confused is in Laws of What Makes a Bed or Chair unclean 3:7 there is no mention of whether she has a set time of not. So I assumed that it makes no difference. Now I see that the Rambam was careful to write in Laws of Forbidden Sexual Relations 9:3 that she has a set time, so we will know Laws of What Makes a Bed or Chair Unclean 3:7 is when she does not have a set time.
[ In case this is unclear, let me say that "having a set time" means she knows when she will see blood. e.g., every 34 days or something like that. "Not having a set time" means it varies from 34 to 36 or 30 etc. with no set pattern.]
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The רמב''ם הלכות מטמאי משכב ומושב פרק ג' חלכה ז a woman that sees a כתם, is unclean back to the time of the last check. In הלכות איסורי באיה פרק ט' הלכה ג when she has a set time to see, then the stain goes back 24 hours. I realized just now that that law in רמב''ם הלכות מטמאי משכב ומושב פרק ג' חלכה ז has to refer to when she does not have a set מחזור to see. I had thought before that הלכות איסורי באיה פרק ט' הלכה ג refers to counting her cycle, but now I see that that is not so. The רמב''ם writes openly there that in terms of counting she counts only when she sees, not when she sees a stain. And we already know from the גמרא נידה ג ע''ב ודף וthat a stain only refers to touching תרומה וקדשים. This really ought to be obvious, but what got me confused is in הלכות מטמאי משכב ומושב פרק ג' חלכה ז there is no mention of whether she has a set מחזור או not. So I assumed that it makes no difference. Now I see that the רמב''ם was careful to write in הלכות איסורי באיה פרק ט' הלכה ג that she has a set מחזור so we will know הלכות מטמאי משכב ומושב פרק ג' חלכה ז is when she does not have a set מחזור.
הרמב''ם הלכות מטמאי משכב ומושב פרק ג' חלכה ז' אישה שרואה כתם, טמאה למפרע לשעת הבדיקה האחרונה. בהלכות איסורי באיה פרק ט' הלכה ג' כשיש לה זמן מוגדר לראות, אז הכתם חוזר 24 שעות אחורה.("וכן מד''ס שכל הרואה דם בלא עת ווסתה וכל הרואה כתם טמאה למפרע עד כ''ד שעות.") הבנתי רק עכשיו שהחוק ההוא ברמב''ם הלכות מטמאי משכב ומושב (פרק ג' הלכה ז', "וכל הרואה כתם טמאה עד עת הפקידה." ) צריך להתייחס כשאין לה מחזור מוגדר לראות. חשבתי קודם שההלכה באיסורי באיה מתייחסת לספירת המחזור שלה, אבל עכשיו אני רואה שזה לא כך. הרמב''ם כותב שם בגלוי שמבחינת הספירה, היא סופרת רק כשהיא רואה, לא כשרואה כתם. וכבר יודעים מהגמרא נידה דף ג' ע''ב ודף ו' שכתם מתייחס רק לנגיעה בתרומה וקדשים. זה באמת צריך להיות ברור, אבל מה שבילבל אותי הוא שבהלכות מטמאי משכב ומושב אין אזכור אם יש לה מחזור מוגדר או לא. אז הנחתי שזה לא משנה. עכשיו אני רואה שהרמב''ם הקפיד לכתוב בהלכות איסורי באיה שיש לה מחזור קבוע כדי שנדע בהלכות מטמאי משכב ומושב זה כשאין לה מחזור מוגדר
) גמרא נידה דף ד' ע''ב. אישה שיש לה ווסת כתמה טמא למפרע שאם תראה שלא בשעת ווסתה מטמאה מעת לעת. (ומה אם אין לה מחזור קבוע? אז כתמה מטמא למפרע עד הבדיקה האחרונה. הלכות מטמאי משכב ומושב. פרק ג' חלכה ז')) הרשו לי לתאר את מקור התמיהה שלי. לחכמים ראיית דם מטמאה אותה והולכת אחורה 24 שעות. ור' דוסא אומר אם היא רואה בשעת ווסתה, אז היא טמאה רק אז. הברייתא היא גם לחכמים וגם לר' דוסא. ביד החזקה הלכות איסורי ביאה פרק ט'הלכה ג', ראיית כתם חוזרת 24 שעות אחורה לנגיעת תרומה וקדשים. אבל מה שמטריד אותי זו השאלה "למה מתייחסת הברייתא?" כשהכתם חוזר יותר מ-24 שעות אחורה כשאין לה ווסת? אז למה להשוות את זה לראיית דם שחוזרת רק 24 שעות אחורה? או אולי הכוונה היא שיש לה ווסת ואז כתמה טמא למפרע כ''ד שעות, אז למה להגיד "למפרע" שונה ממה שזה חוזר אחורה 24 שעות–מעת לעת? הדרך שבה נראית הברייתא היא שאם הייתה משמעותה של 24 שעות, היא הייתה משתמשת באותו ביטוי המשמש לראייה בפועל. לא "למפרע" אלא "מעת לעת".
Why write music? you might ask. It certainly is no reason for bitul Torah. But I had a degree of difficulty in learning Torah. Mainly it was such that I walked away from it myself and found I could not really return to the straight Litvak Path. So I recommend the straight path of Torah --the path that the Gra represents. No additions and no perversions. But that does not imply I am on this holy path myself. I wish I could learn Torah 24/7 as I should but I am finding that difficult. [Not that that is an excuse.]
[I wonder if I had not left the Mir in NY, how things might have turned out better.]
j13 j14 j16 j55 j28 j27 [j files in this post are all in midi]
exodus 4 in mp3 [exodus 4 in midi][This last one was written in the 1990's on the way back from Uman]
organ [organ in midi](this one also is from the 1990's) j8 e-33 [e-33 in midi] mathematics [the basic music line here was written while by the ziun of rav nahman in uman and then put together in ny.]]
Kant held that the issue of causality does not apply among dinge an sich (things in themselves) and in fact Physics is formulated in such a way that things know to move to lower energy levels [the Lagrange formulation]. So even though causality is true, it seems that physics is in fact showing that in a deeper sense causality is not fundamental.
So even though causality is true and even true locally, still the general way Physics is formulated nowadays with idea of things tending towards lower energy levels, [and how would that poor electron know about that?] shows that there is some level of reality that is transcendent
(things in themselves) means things without the characteristics that we the observers attribute to them. That is: the way they are without our contribution.
In the American Civil War, you did not have neighbors attacking neighbors. This is not the case in the Ukraine. The situation is such that such scenarios are probable. Such was the case when the czar abdicated. People that thought their neighbors were on the other side of the fence [Either the Reds [communistic] or the Whites [for the Czar] would murder.. And some cities would welcome a return of the old USSR. [as many people told me ].And other cities would not. The dividing lines are not set.
So I think that the USA ought to not intervene.
Why get into a shooting war? There already were plenty of close calls with the old Cold War. And it is a miracle that did not end in disaster..
The problem is that people do not understand the Ukraine. It is not the East that is divided. It is every single neighbor that has heard a word for the last 30 years about the "good old days of the USSR" is now going to try and destroy that neighbor. It is a civil war like nothing the West can imagine. Plus there is some strand of DNA in the Ukraine that tends to criminality. So to have USA troops over there is unwise.
Where you see the idea of every word of Torah is equal to all (other commandments) is in the Yerushalmi on the mishna in peah תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם אפילו דבר אחד של התורה. "Learning Torah is equal to them all (other commandments),"--and the Yerushalmi says there, " even one word of Torah."
But this leaves me in a sort of contradictory position, for on one hand I think learning Torah [Oral and Written Law] is the greatest of all the commandments, still I do not think people ought to be paid money for doing so. To me it is like having trust in God. Trust in God is also a mitzvah [as brought in many verses]. But would you pay someone to have trust in God?
[ I might mention, that the strict definition of the Oral Law refers to the actual books written around the time of the Talmud. רבינא ורב אשי סוף הוראה As the Gemara says: "Ravina and Rav Ashi are the end of the period of teaching and deciding the law." So what comes later is second hand. So while the rishonim are important in order to understand the Oral Law, they are not the Oral Law.]
כמו שאין תוספת וגירעון בתורה שבכתב כן אין תוספת וגירעון בתורה שבעל פה--רמב''ם באגרת
[When I was in Shar Yashuv (of Rav Freifeld), I discovered this idea of the importance of every word of Torah. That lite a fuse under me. Later circumstances dampened my ardor, but I still wish that I could be learning Torah.] (Incidentally he emphasized doing every chapter or portion of what one learns ten times. In Shar Yashuv they were very much into learning in depth. I now appreciate that much more than I did then, because I have that people that d not get the in depth sort of learning when young, never get it.]
[There is a difference between the Oral Law and explanations of the Oral Law. So while the actual Oral Law is only the books of the sages of the Mishna and Talmud, Tosphot would be in the category of what explains the oral law.
I thought to share some old music files. So here is one from a few years back b100 mp3 [same in midi file b100 here is another b101.[b101 midi file] And another e36 mp3. e36 midi file Here is a old P file also from around the year 2000. Here is another old e file.e34mp3 [e34 midi file]
and here is a file I am not sure if it is worth sharing b98 mp3 [b98midi]
here is gem I totally forget writing at all:j90mp3.j90midi
And others j81 j47 j2 file j3 file j6 [j6 midi file] i89 [i89 nwc file] (This i89 was almost finished but forgotten. I now had just add the last few measures.]) j10
Why share now? you might ask. I do not know. I was just writing it for me. [And it would take a lot of time to see what is worth sharing, and what would be worth sharing with editing. And besides tons of files were lost.
i69 (This seems to be a midi file, but it sounds like mp3) . Here is the nwc program file that it was written in:i69 [written in 2013]
[I have no new ideas, so i thought to share something from times long ago.]
Why do I write music when the Gemara in Gitin forbids music vocal and instrumental? Tosphot says there this refers to drinking halls. And when i find a rishon to depend on, I usually depend on him. [Especially Tosphot who is always right, as David Bronson once told me.] [Tosphot is the most exact and logically rigorous of the Rishonim].--but also the most difficult.
תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם That is there is a mishna in tractate Peah: that brings a list of the commandments that have no lower limit. E.g., charity. That means even the smallest coin. [It does not mean that one ought to give just the smallest coin. Rather that even with the smallest coin one has done a good deed.]And after that list it brings, "learning Torah is equal to them all." The Gra explains that even with one word of Torah, one has fulfilled the commandment of learning Torah.
The Rambam brings in laws of learning Torah that the things that he explained in the first 4 chapters of the Mishna Torah that are called "Pardes" (Physics and Metaphysics as he explained in greater detail in the Guide for the Perplexed) are in the category of the Gemara [That is learning the Oral Law in depth.] So every word of Physics is included.
https://malcolmpollack.com/2022/01/15/on-mass-formation-in-the-here-and-now/
https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/
To participate in polite society today – or, to put that more accurately, to be able to keep your job, get a college degree, or avoid being deplatformed from most media – we are expected to go along with things that most people know in their hearts are simply not so: that sex and race are purely social constructs; that men can become pregnant and bear children; that biology and heritability have nothing to do with human traits, and with their statistical distribution in populations; that cultures and peoples can be mixed and jumbled together at random without affecting the cohesion and stability of formerly homogeneous societies; that “equality” means that people cannot vary in talents, abilities, and aptitudes; that the greatest threat to American society is “white supremacy”; that everything in the modern Western world, from mathematics to nuclear families to pumpkin-spice lattes, is racist; that intelligence is a meaningless and unquantifiable concept; that when different identity groups perform differently on qualifying tests for education and employment, those tests should simply be discarded; that for nations to control their borders is inherently immoral; that the interests of criminals trump those of law-abiding citizens; that parents should have no say in how their children are educated; that members of various, designated groups are not to be considered responsible agents; that the way to deal with rising crime is to stop arresting people; that the 2020 election was squeaky-clean; that the January 6th protest was an assault on a par with Pearl Harbor and 9/11 (while the three-day siege of the White House by BLM and Antifa, in which hunrdeds of officers were injured, and the First Family had to be evacuated, was not); that the protests of that summer were “mostly peaceful”; and no end of other obvious falsehoods and absurdities.
Torah can guide people to the right way. It can guide one to Objective Morality. [That is the Oral and Written Law]]. But what makes this impossible to tell people is that the Dark Side has hijacked it. The Sitra Achra has taken over the religious world. So one can and must still learn and keep Torah, but far away from the religious who have been taken over.
Rav Nahman did hint to this to the degree of warning us about Torah scholars that are demons in the Le.M vol I:12 but still in his time this problem had not extended outwards.
However it would be possible to recommend the great Litvak yeshivot like the Mir in NY or any of the great yeshivot based on the Gra in Israel. However this is also an "ify" kind of answer, because things are not so simple even in the best of places. At least they teach authentic Torah. But the Sitra Achra can reach even there.
There is something "off" about the religious world and I can not tell what it is. And I dare not speculate. [(At least it is clear that the religious worship dead people. Not God. That much is easy to see. But is that the whole problem? Who knows?)]
And even if no one listens to the Gra, I still am obligated to warn people. At least I have said what is clearly the case and anyone with the slightest bit of common sense can see this, still when people refuse to pat attention, I have fulfilled my obligation.
[The Gra is not at all like the insane religious world. They use Torah as weapon to hurt secular Jews.
The approach of the Gra is that every word of Torah [the Written Law and the Gemara ] is worth as much as all the other commandments put together. But what diminishes the effect of learning Torah is when it gets mixed up with other stuff. It as healthy as a fudge sundae mixed with a tiny bit of cyanide at the bottom. So while Torah would be a correction to all kinds of strange notions going around nowadays, still at present, even learning Torah can not help. Torah can help only when it is authentic.
It is odd how Torah got to be a means of making money when it seems clear that it was meant to be a "for the sake of Heaven" kind of thing. I might not think this so odd if not for the commentary of the Rambam on Pirkei Avot where he says the heads of the yeshivot that claim it is a good deed to give them money are lying. [That is not on the first time that mishna is brought there. The first time is in the first chapter. But later it is brought again כל המשתמש בתגא חלף [who ever uses the Torah passes away] and there the Rambam says that comment.
That comment of the Rambam was the cause of the first arguments against him during his lifetime. That argument is not well known. The second argument against him was because of the Guide for the Perplexed. That one seems to have bee more wide spread since it included the Baali HaTosphot and also Rabbainu Yona [author of the Gates of Repentance]. Later Rabbainu Yona realized his mistake and in fact repented and thus we have the classic Musar book Gates of Repentance. [There are four classics: חובות לבבות שערי תשובה, אורחות צדיקים מסילת ישרים.]
One of the important ideas I gained in Shar Yashiv [a great Litvak yeshiva of Rav Shelomo Freifeld] was the idea of review ten times. [That is review of every paragraph or chapter, or what ever subdivision is the most applicable for that subject. E.g.Tospho t.]But I did not apply this idea much at all. I felt so lacking in background information that I used to do review twice and go on. This never got me into the depths of Torah learning, but at least I covered some ground.
[This sort of approach of review of each paragraph many times helps in Physics. In terms of Tosphot, I find doing the same Tosphot day after day more helpful.]
I realize that being smart and being talented are not the same thing. For though my dad was smart, but certainly no genius IQ. But when it came to inventing stuff he was a genius. [Which clearly he will never get credit for.] The first was the infrared telescope. [At least for that in fact he did get the credit in Life Magazine. (note 1)But that is totally forgotten about today. When they launched the James Web Telescope [which is an infrared telescope], no one even bothered to mention who invented the infrared telescope. Next was the X-ray satellites launched for the USA space program. [Even though here I am guessing. For my dad did in fact invent the Copy-Mate Machine using x-rays to make a super sharp copy machine. (not sure how that worked). But then he was snatched up by TRW in 1965 until to make their x ray satellites. [Those were the first spy satellites.] Then after that he made laser communication between satellites--also at TRW until the TRW satellite program itself was shut down because of two moles that were selling the technology there to the KGB. [That was made into a movie the Snowman and the Falcon]
[And though I am no where as smart or talented as he was, I still try to walk in his path and combine that with the path of the Gra and Rav Shach of straight Torah. That is Torah with Derech Eretz.
(note 1) It is good that Life Magazine article was published with my father's photo. My dad's mother said she would have given ten years of her life just to see that picture. That seems to be the only bit of credit that will ever be known.
The way I conceive of God is the First Cause. The general way this is attacked is "Then what caused the first cause?" The way to answer this objection is this: if you always need a cause of a cause [an infinite series] that would defeat the entire concept of causality. For you would never get to any cause if you would have to go an infinite number of steps back. So if you accept causality at all, you have to accept the First Cause.
The First Cause does not say anything else. {Thinking of God as the First Cause does not say anything about His Nature. If you want to get to that you need to show that by rigorous logic}
The problem with people's conception of "Hashem " is it is like
a personal "god" that they can command to do what they want.
And "all religions” are not connected with God. For example, the Aztec religion was a religion and has very little to do with God.
The proof of Godel about the existence of God is important, but that is not the issue I want to address here. But I might as well mention I had away of sealing up his proof with an idea I saw in a Mathematical Logic Book.In Mathematical Logic there are two principles which answer the objection of Kant.
(Completeness Theorem)(Compactness Theorem).
I knew the rosh yeshiva of Aderet Eliyahu in Jerusalem and his father who founded that yeshiva. That was a first of its kind. There were and are great Litvak yeshivot, but this was the first place that did everything according to the Gra. And while I am far from that vision, still I can see the greatness of it. I wish that there should be many such places.[And I wish that I myself would merit to walk in the path of the Gra.]
[Mainly that is learning Torah in depth, Muar (learning Musar in order to gain good character traits), and last but not least his signature on the letter of excommunication.
I see the present state off the "woke" [that that the USA is founded upon black labor and that whites are inherently evil] as a result of the Civil War. I mean to say that there is such a thing as group actions. So while individual people may be great, still the general direction of the slaves has been to destroy the USA. The fact that it has taken a long time does not mean that the effort has nor been real.
The Talmud says, "One who does a favor for one who does not have gratitude is as one who worships an idol [throws as one at Mercury]."How many do you know who have gratitude towards the USA for freeing them?
The issue of state's rights is thus: The Constitution was written to give to the Federal government certain rights--powers-. For example :to collect taxes. Without that the states were almost at war one with the other and certainly not paying the war debt of the War of Independence. So the Constitution gave powers to the Federal government. But in the Bill of Rights it was stated that any powers not reserved for the Federal government belong to the states or individuals. [That is the ninth and tenth ammendment]. It removes itself from the question of what rights states or individuals have. It says "WE do not know". Maybe (it holds) in the future more rights or less rights might be found for states or individuals. We do not know. All we are doing is to give to the Federal government certain rights. Maybe all individuals including slaves have a right to be free? Maybe nor. We do not know. This Constitution does not deal with questions we do not know."
In a time when there is so much stuff going on, you might ask what to do? I discussed this with David Bronson a few times (over a few issues) and his answer was always along the lines of, "Let's sit and learn Gemara". Or one time I was asking such questions, and he brought up the mishna כל המקבל עליו עול תורה מעבירים ממנו עול מלכות ועול דרך ארץ. ["Whosoever accepts on himself the yoke of Torah, the yoke of government and the yoke of the way of the earth (work) is removed from him." [That does not mean to be begging for money.]
When I asked a question, "What can a father do for his children to guide them?" he brought this idea of Rav Nahman that when a father repents on his sins, thoughts of repentance enter into his children.
Another time I brought up this subject and he brought an event mentioned in the Gemara. There was an extreme tax brought on the city where Judah HaNasi lived. He said, "All problems come from people ignorant of Torah." [You can ask on this from the Gemara in Shabat that says all problems come into the world because of "judges of Israel"] There is no contradiction as we see in Hulin. perek 7 that all problems in the world come from תלמידי חכמים שדיים יהודאיים Torah scholars that are demons.[Le.M I:12 and I:28]
So how do you tell? By the criteria of "Lishma" [those that learn Torah for its own sake]. Some people accept money to learn Torah, but their intension is to learn. They only accept money because that is the only way they can spend their days learning Torah. These are the true good Torah scholars. They are the Litvaks. [Those that walk in the path of the Gra.]--(However I admit that even in the Litvak world there can be phonies. But the general type--the group characteristic is that of Torah for its own sake.]
David Bronson explained to me that there are things that are not worth the trouble to argue with people about. It is that certain things are set in their DNA. {I was asking about the conflict between Israel and the Muslims.] But this can be applied across along long lines of issues.
It is best just to learn Torah and see what the Law of God has to tell us and to recommend to others to do the same.
Stll, with all that there is an "inyan" [a thing] about to "object". That is even if no one will listen, still one must object to wrong--at least to make one's position clear. [That is from the event of the Concubine of Giva. What I mean is on the second day of the war, (end of Book of Judges) God was asked if to continue to make war on Binyamin, and He agreed. Why? Because no one in Binyamin objected to the murder of the concubine. To punish the evil doers was not the issue. The issue was to punish the whole tribe because they did not object to evil.
However, I still think this is a one time event. You object and make your stance known and then get back to learning Torah.]
The importance of the Gra [Eliyahu of Villna] is that he defines pure straight authentic Torah with no additions or subtractions. This is very different from the religious world which worships dead people; but does it with religious clothing so that it looks authentic
One of the not so minor problems with the religious world is idolatry. This may not be obvious at first to people that are sunk into it, but if you think about it you can see that worship of graves of tzadikim is a problem. I am not saying this is easy to be gotten rid of. You really need someone like king Yoshiyahu that went all over Israel destroying every last remnant of idolatry. And of course the problem with fighting evil is that one suffers for it. Somehow after that, he got a dumb idea in his head to fight the king of Egypt and lost. And his kingship was pretty much the end of kings of the house of David. His children were the ones that the king of Babylon killed and destroyed the Temple, and the glory of that Temple has never returned.
That shows how powerful the kelipa of idolatry is. Still if the Torah stands for anything, at very least it stands for not doing idolatry. There is no choice but to fight it, no matter what the consequences are.
My parents definitely saw the evil of the religious world, but I did not understand what they were saying. I wanted to go to an authentic Litvak yeshiva based on the Gra, but did not see how the religious counterfeit religiosity that the Gra us against, had seeped into it.
על ידי אמצעות הדיבור יכולים לבא לתבונות התורה לעומקה This is is an amazing insight from Rav Nahman that just by saying the words one can come to understanding of the Torah in its depths. [Le.M.vol I:11]
If you combine this with Le.M vol I 61 על ידי אמונת חכמים יכולים להוציא משפטינו לאור [by means of faith in the wise, our judgment can come into the light.] then you get this: Start with the fact that the Rambam was wise. And that he included Physics and Metaphysics in the category of learning Torah [in laws of learning Torah], then just by saying the words of your Mathematics and Physics textbooks, you come to understand them. [This does not diminish the importance of review as Rav Nahman himself brings in sefer HaMidot. Rather it leaves the question of how much review and how much of "girsa" {just saying the words} as an open issue.]
So why do people not do this? Because they do not have faith in themselves. See the LeM of Rav Nahman 86 where he talks about that when people have little faith, they need hard services. I.e., just like when there is a time when government is is trying to destroy faith that one needs even to give up his or her life on the slightest infraction, So when there is little faith one needs hard services.
Rav Nathan [a disciple of Rav Nahman] asked him "then what about me who I think I has faith?" Rav Nahman brought the Chazal [statement of the sages] מיעוט אמונה בעצמן גורמת בזבוז שחלונם של צדיקים What causes the destruction of the table of saints in the next world? The lack of faith they have in themselves.
[In our context that means one does not need hard methods to become a rocket scientist. But why people do not do this is because they think they do not understand--when in fact they really do. Just that the understanding is hidden inside and absorbed until much later it is fruitful.]
Of course we all know that "Girsa" is brought in the Gemara itself and is widely known in all he great Litvak Yeshivot. It is more or less practiced as such in the afternoon session from 4PM to 8PM. Yet Rav Nahman adds an emphasis and the further insight that just by saying the words, the ideas are absorbed
See the verse in Proverbs chapter 8 verse 11 concerning Wisdom"כל חפצים לא ישוו בה"".And the Jerusalem Gemara explain this thus: Even the desirable things of Heaven are not equal to it. And the Gra {Eliyahu from Villna] shows that everyone word of Torah (an wisdom) are more than equal to even all of the other commandments combined together.
I may not have a lot of trust in God, but I try to renew my trust in him when I wake up in the morning and repeat to myself the opening paragraphs of the Level of Man [Navardok] in the section on trust. And this practice I recommend to others, to learn Musar [i.e. the classical books on Morality from the Middle Ages]. Then when you find something that you know needs reinforcement, to repeat it to yourself right when you get up in the morning. Over time something has to sink in.
The major works of Musar are , מסילת ישרים, ספר היראה, חובות הלבבות, שערי תשובה, אורחות צדיקים Book of Fear, Paths of the Righteous, Ways of the Just, Gates of Repentance]
But I would like to add the books of the disciples of Rav Israel Salanter as they deepen one's understanding of these principles of Fear of God and good character traits.
[However if you really want Fear of God and good character, you must runaway from the religious world since they assume the appearance of Torah, while are in fact ruled by the Sitra Achra (the Dark Side).]
Where did the break occur between authentic Torah and the false world of the religious? The break happened when the signature of the Gra on the letter of excommunication was ignored. And the result i that the entire religious world is wicked.
On a side note: The path of Musar is great but has some drawbacks. That is why the Litvak world introduced it in the yeshiva but only for 20 min in afternoon and 15 at night. The danger is that it can get one off the path of learning Gemara,-and even going off on some tangent. But it is hard to say that one can just get the basic world view of Torah without it. In fact it seems clear that without Musar people go off into terrible delusions . But even so you can see that there was a god reason that the actual time for learning it became much less than what was desired by Rav Israel Salanter.
For some odd reason I found sticking to the straight Torah path to be hard even though I had a sincere desire to stick with learning Torah. The difficulties were from within and from without. "From within"--means I was too easily detracted. "From without" means even from people that were learning Torah because that was the way they learned Torah to make money. That is the sort of Lakewood kollel sorts of fraud that claim to be super geniuses. But one way or the other I found sticking to learning Torah to be too hard when everyone in the so called "Torah community" convinced my wife to leave me and take her for themselves, and to rape my children. The religious world at first seemed holy and upright. At that point, when they started to rape my children, they seemed to be not at all so great.
Even though Torah is great and holy, the religious world is a mess. They are nothing like their claim of keeping Torah. It all a show of religiosity. There might be others who are evil, but for me the religious people were the most evil because of their ability and success to hurt my family by means of their show and dance.
Torah is one thing. The religious world is the opposite. So the fact that some people see the religious world as hypocrites--well there very well might be something to back that up.
So in conclusion --there is some aspect of things here that are hard to understand in their very essence. Some סביב רשעים יתהלכון "the wicked go round about" i.e., where there is holiness (the holy Torah) the flies and demons gather around to surround [and use it for evil סם חיים למיימינים בה סם מוות למשמאליים בה an elixir of life for those that walk in Torah for its own sake. Torah is a poison for those that walk in it for the sake of power and money (which means the entire religious world is poison).
So what is it about the religious world that makes the show and dance about Torah which s so different from Torah itself? Well for one thing the religious world is not about Torah at all. It is about the appearance of Torah. [This is in fact something that Rav Nahman of Breslov pointed out concerning Torah scholars that are demons. And he meant this quite literally. And thy are the leaders of the religious world. ]
Even though lashon hara [slander] is serious sin, still there is a need to warn people about danger that awaits them. So to speak highly of the great Yeshiva world of the Litvak yeshivot, one must also draw a distinction between those that follow the straight and narrow path of the Gra and the religious world that is obsessed with rituals
There is some sort of "kelipa" (or evil force) that seems to have take over the religious world. Even though I found myself in a island in the few great Litvaks yeshivot that God granted to me to attend, still the wider religious world that seems to surround these sorts of places I found to be of the lowest moral standards. סביב רשעים יתהלכון [That is a verse in Psalms. "The wicked go round about". That means where ever there is holiness, the wicked surround it.]
I think one of the greatest benefits I had at the few Litvak yeshivot that I attended, was the learning of Musar. Even though I was raised the home of my parents who were in fact very upright and moral people, still, I needed a sort of intellectual basis for this. Maybe I ought to know simple moral principles by being raised in such an environment, but I needed the extra understanding that comes from Musar.
So what I recommend for myself and others is the learning of the basic texts of Musar which are the medieval books on ethics and also the books of the disciples of Rav Israel Salanter
Scientism is the faith that only what science can measure in a test tube can be real. But this seems to be highly non scientific. For science seeks to know what we do not know; not to limit what can be known.
But how can areas beyond what can be tested by a test tube or by pure reason be known? Thus to answer this question I had to turn to Immediate Non Intuitive Knowledge (of the the Kant-Friesian School of Kelley Ross). That means knowledge that is not dependent on the senses nor on pure reason.
And this makes a lot of sense to me because I am sorry to have to admit it but it makes sense to me because of my own personal experience of faith. So I realize that personal experience is no proof of anything, still I have to explain why I find this school of thought to be so compelling.
And along with this I can also believe that mystics like Rav Avraham Abulafia from the Middle Ages-had true mystic vision. [ Rav Abulafia had a lot of ideas that are in absolute contradiction to what the religious world thinks. And I admit I was totally shocked when I first read his ideas in manuscript form in 1992.[This was after I had undergone difficult traumatic times in my life-so I might have been more receptive to his new approach. You might say I was no longer as sure of my ideas as I hade been before that.]
But then how does one tell who has true vision? For this I think you need the mediaeval formula of Faith with Reason. That is Faith may go beyond Reason but Reason still determines what is reasonable.
So the question is how to strike a true balance between reason and faith. The problem is one without the other leads to lunacy. Thus the Litvak Yeshiva approach based on the Gra I think must be thought of as the true approach.
The problem with mysticism based on the Zohar is the phrase עם כל דא "even though".[עם כל דא " is used all the time in the Zohar.] I mean to say that the Zohar was written during the Middle Ages after that phrase עם כל זה [translated in Aramaic עם כל דא] was invented by the Ibn Tibon family. Before then one said "even though" by אף על פי or אף על גב. [Rav Yakov Emden in fact noticed the problem. He concluded that some parts of the Zohar were based on mystic writings that had come before that time, but a lot of it was not from R Shimon ben Yochai.
So while I have a lot of respect for the great mystics like Rav Avraham Abulafia and Rav Isaac Luria,, I do not see the Zohar as having validity at all.
To learn fast [saying the words and going on] or slow [with review]? I had seen the fast way in the Musar book אורחות צדיקים Ways of the Righteous and also in some book [בניין עולם] in Shar Yashuv. [Note1] But in Shar Yashuv itself there was [as in all yeshivot based on the Gra] an emphasis on slow painstaking review.
[There was recommended to review everything you learn ten times]
At the time, I came up with a sort of middle path or review twice. But over the years, I have found there are places where the fast sort of learning seems to work best--I mean absolutely fast. And there are places where review is the only thing that works.
The places where fast is the best is where review does not seem to work at all. I am sorry to admit it, but an example is higher mathematics. Places like that where review does nothing (since it is like a vertical structure), there I need to get the whole picture before I can understand even the slightest detail.
Places where review seems best are in Tosphot or books of Rav Chaim of Brisk or Rav Shach. These are places that are deep and profound, but do not depend on extensive knowledge elsewhere. That is to say--they make sense in their own place--if you spend enough time on them.
The problem with social justice theories is when implemented result in their exact opposite. The death toll of communist's regimes in the 20th century go above 100 million..[just counting the USSR and China. That ought to put some kind of damper on the enthusiasm these theories. The proof is in the pudding. And no matter how well thought out a theory is, if it predicts results [prosperity and peace for all] -that turn out to be contrary to its predictions--that theory is false.
But this applies to religious delusions also. The allure of the religious world is their claim of peace and justice for all which is the opposite of the truth.
The further one gets into areas of numinous content [powerful spiritual presence] like music, art, justice, spiritual values, the less concepts of pure reason are applicable. See Kant (and the Kant-Friesian School). The issue is this there is analytic knowledge which is true by definitions; and synthetic knowledge e.g. there is a continent between Asia and Europe.. There is also a priori knowledge (known, but not by the senses) and a posteriori knowledge known by observation . So can a priori synthetic knowledge exist? Kant shows how, but only within a certain limit. That limit is "the conditions of possible experience".So when people try to show by pure reason principles things are can not be observed by the five senses and not within the area of possible experience, then you know they are getting into an area where reason not only is invalid, but is also destructive.]
It is not known if the Gra agreed with the establishment of an institution "yeshiva" as independent from the local Rav and community. {That is something like a corporation.] For the most part, all you had was the local place where people prayed in the morning and then who ever wanted to just stayed and learned there during the day.
When Rav Chaim of Voloshin asked the Gra about starting such an independent institution as a yeshiva the Gra did not answer at first. Then there are several accounts. Some say that he agreed in the end. Others say he never agreed.
To me this shows a basic ambiguity about the whole issue. Certainly, Torah was never meant to be a means to get a kollel pay check. On the other hand, I had been part of two very great Litvak yeshivot Shar Yashuv and the Mir in NY. In Shar Yashuv I learned about the great importance of reviewing everything you learn ten times.
So it is hard to know. Maybe the connection between Torah and Money nowadays has just gotten too out of hand.
[I do not know if it matters to others, but perhaps a bit of personal information might be helpful. I had a great time in Shar Yashuv and learned from Naphtali Yeager about the infinite depths of Tosphot. But after that I went to the Mir where the learning was more along the lines of Rav Haim of Brisk. ]
The problem that Rav Nahman brings in the Le.M [volume I chapters 12, 28] about תלמידי חכמים שדיים יהודאיים "Torah scholars that are demons" would not resonate so strongly with me if not for the fact of personal experience. The issue is there are plenty of these sort of Torah scholars that can "talk the talk" and say all the right words and verbiage, but when it comes to action, they do as much damage to us simple people as they can. I was not aware of the presence of these teachers of righteousness that are internally demons until I experienced their damage on my own self and family. And so I knock myself every day that I did not heed the warning of the Gra concerning this difficulty.
So what does this mean for other simple people? Not to avoid Torah which is holy and important. Rather to heed the signature of the Gra on the letter of excommunication. Not because we are so religious, but rather because of self preservation.
[I wish I could walk in the path of the Gra--straight learning and keeping Torah. But at least this important point of the Gra I think should be heeded. And furthermore, even if one thinks that the herem was by mistake, it still is valid since a herem/excommunication has the same category as קונמות--נדרים vows. That is one can say about an animal "This is to be a sacrifice" and that is valid regardless of his reasons for doing so. So it us in the case of the excommunication. It is valid no matter if people accept it or not.
I need to do here that Rav Nahman was not included in the Herem signed by the Gra. This you can see by looking at the actual language of the document.
It is customary to ignore the Gra's signature on the document of the herem but because of this ignoring the fact has caused the religious world to descend into its present state of insanity.